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D'Wild Wild Weng
Philippines 1982
produced by Peter M. Caballes for Liliw Films International
directed by Eddie Nicart
starring Weng Weng, Max Laurel, Yehlen Catral, Nina Sara, Max Alvarado, Romy Diaz, Ernie Ortega, Robert Miller, Rene Romero, Ike Lozada, Dencio Padilla, Joe Cunanan, Jay Grama, Gil Bandong, Nelson Armiza, Ray Albella, Lito Navrro, Fred Esplana, Alex Pascual, Angelito J. de Guzman, Goliath, Mando Pangilinan, Oscar Reyes, SOS Daredevils
written by Cora Caballes, music by Pablo Vergara, stunt coordination by Eddie Nicart
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The Old West ... or is it the Philippines, who knows: Midget marshal
Weng (Weng Weng) and his full-size sidekick Gordon (Max Laurel) are on
their way to Santa Monica to investigate the disappearance of the city
mayor - and from the mayor's mute caretaker Lupo (Max Alvarado), they soon
find out he has been killed by the men of Sebastian (Romy Diaz), an
unscrupulous slavedriver who actually wants to give himself the appearance
of a legitimate businessman - and yet his men try to rape women wherever
they can ... and thus Weng and Gordon have soon found love interests
(Yehlen Catral, Nina Sara) in women they have saved from rape. However,
when Sebastian hears that his men are prevented from their favourite
pastime, he sends Ku Manchu (Ernie Ortega) and his ninjas after Weng and
company - but of course, an army of ninjas isn't enough to defeat our
heroes. Ultimately, Sebastian threatens to kill some of his slaves -
honest citizens of Santa Monica - shouldn't Weng give himself up ... and
Weng does, only to be tied up spreadeagled in the desert to be baked to
death in the sun - but of course his friends save him. Then Sebastian has
Weng and Gordon's girls kidnapped, but our friends kidnap one of his
gang's key members in return. It all ends in a big shootout in which Lupo
is allowed to die a hero's death before the baddies seem to win the upper
hand - until they are overpowered by a tribe of midget natives in league
with Weng, and good triumphs over evil. Basically, this action
comedy is carried by the novelty of its hero Weng Weng - he's a midget.
This doesn't carry the film far though, because the joke of a pint-sized
protagonist grows pretty old pretty fast. So what we're left with is a
trashy piece of genre cinema that on one hand has a healthy disregard for
logic (why are there ninjas and samurai in the old west, why are the
Indians midgets, and why is everyone here of Oriental descent), on the
other the movie's humour is pretty low-brow and repetitive, and while it
contains plenty of action and then some, these sequences are neither all
that special (mainly gunfight after gunfight) nor particularly
well-staged. And Max Alvarado as the mute but constantly squeaking
"funny" character is a pain in the neck. Well, fans of exotic
1980's grindhouse fare (like myself) will still have to watch this and
find something amusing about it ... but it's really not that great a
movie.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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Robots and rats,
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